Amd what chance would have had of getting any decent results on a minimally supported 250, totally pointless comparison! Ask Eugene Laverty or Jay Vincent or numerous others who didnt lease a 5 year old bike from Aprilia for over a million quid! Greed cost them their participationa n d it serves them right

Based on James Whitham's comments in Eurosport broadcasts, Laverty's experience racing a 250 was very profitable indeed, although not in terms of results. Same goes for Chaz Davies. Aprilia upset the Japanese manufacturers by their insistence on running expensive factory-level support in 250GP, when Honda were interested in either dumping the class or running it as a production-racer class like Moto3 is now. Honda stayed on with less and less support, and Suzuki and Yamaha took their racing efforts elsewhere.

Can't blame them though, the Noale team was being hopelessly outspent in the big class. Can't fault their desire to win. Perhaps you can fault the MSMA's stance in favouring cost control everywhere except where they intend on racing.

250s were not ideal, especially not in the last few years of the class (afaik national-level 250cc racing died out in the late 90s/early 2000s, and with it all those economies of scale that made genuine privateers possible), but I doubt Marquez's team is spending much less than the top 250 entries were. If that's what it takes to be competitive over a whole season in the future, then Grand Prix racing has a problem.

The reasoning behind my doubts about Marquez is because MotoGP is such a different world, with the electronics, engine power and most crucially the tyres. Look at Ben Spies, he's a good exmaple of someone who's ultimately failed to reinvent himself as a rider and this is why he has lost his seat at Yamaha for the most part. Despite all the success he's had outside of MotoGP, it didn't mean squat this year. Looking at Ben Spies, it has become clear to me that to be successful in MotoGP currently a rider has to forget everything about what made them great in other championships and totally renew themselves in order to understand the bike and the tyres. There is no way in hell that Marquez will be able to ride an RC213V like he did his Moto2 Suter and win races - they're two fundamentally different machines.

I do fear that Marquez may turn out to be another Spies, for his sake I hope I'm wrong.

I'm just wondering when ever did a topline GP driver come from the super bike class, i'm sure it will take Marquez some time to adapt more so than in either 125s or Moto2, it takes everyone time to adapt whether it be Rossi, Stoner, Pedrosa or Lorenzo but he will adapt i'm sure of it.

I'm just wondering when ever did a topline GP driver come from the super bike class, i'm sure it will take Marquez some time to adapt more so than in either 125s or Moto2, it takes everyone time to adapt whether it be Rossi, Stoner, Pedrosa or Lorenzo but he will adapt i'm sure of it.

Nicky Hayden. If you're good enough and get the lucky breaks and navigate the inevitable GP politics (which Hayden only just managed), he's proof that you can succeed in Grands Prix without previous experience on race prototypes.

If Suzuki had been a major player (like, Honda/Yamaha level) in MotoGP, you wonder whether Spies's MotoGP career would've looked more like Hayden's. He rode very well for Yamaha in 2010 and 2011, but he was still the outsider who left Suzuki because they couldn't provide him with a good seat outside of America. Course, their careers with Hondamaha ended more or less the same way.

Nicky Hayden. If you're good enough and get the lucky breaks and navigate the inevitable GP politics (which Hayden only just managed), he's proof that you can succeed in Grands Prix without previous experience on race prototypes.

If Suzuki had been a major player (like, Honda/Yamaha level) in MotoGP, you wonder whether Spies's MotoGP career would've looked more like Hayden's. He rode very well for Yamaha in 2010 and 2011, but he was still the outsider who left Suzuki because they couldn't provide him with a good seat outside of America. Course, their careers with Hondamaha ended more or less the same way.

Yes Hayden won the top class when Rossi/Yamaha dropped the ball and his teammate Pedrosa was a rookie but Hayden never got classed as an alien just a good pro, all the big stars recently have come from the feeder series like Rossi, Stoner, Pedrosa and Lorenzo, why some think that MotoGP maybe to big a step for Marquez when his CV is every bit as good as these i don't know?

They didn't have aliens in 2006. Or in 2007, for that matter, everyone was too busy trying to explain how Casey Stoner had a huge equipment advantage (when in fact he mostly just had huge equipment).

No real reason why Marquez can't succeed like the four you mentioned, but nothing is ever certain. We're still awaiting our first Moto2->MotoGP race winner, there are a few riders who never seemed to get totally comfortable in the heavyweight class, there are already three Marc Marquez-level talents with competitive rides for 2013. Marquez bounced back from a huge accident and career-threatening injury at the end of 2011. That's the biggest worry for anyone coming into MotoGP with a good team: they might have a couple of big accidents and never recover their confidence. Thankfully Marquez has already dealt very well with something like that.

Rossi, an alien in 2007? Definitely not.
He was the first of them, but I have never seen, heard or listened to him being called an alien alone.
A quick google search showed it was De Puniet who came up with it... in July 2009.

There is no telling what exactly Marquez will be up to. You just can't expect someone of his talent/results to fiddle around for 5th and lucky podiums his entire career.

Not that there are many Australians or North/South Americans in the world championships either. It's a tough world with few genuinely paid rides, and the risk you take trying to get the results and experience to deserve one is much greater when you have to travel to Europe to do it. Red Bull Rookies is doing a little to plug that gap, but the fact that an international scholarship programme for 15-year-olds is all they've got to redress the balance gives you an idea of how far the major "regional" motorcycling series have fallen.

There is a very good MotoPod interview with Josh Hayes that was just released. One of the subjects was on the state of AMA and the bike racing world in general. Josh talked about there no longer being a pathway to go up the ladder, even for the very talented. There was a time when there were multiple factory efforts (the big 4 were all present, plus good efforts from Erion and others) in AMA, so a promising young rider could stick with a manufacturer and move up. Now, there is a gulf for riders after 'Supersport' (an age limit kids series in AMA), and getting a budget together to be competitive at the next level ('Daytona' class) is really, really hard. Virtually no paid rides exist anymore so many will get left behind.

Hayes remarked that while he was making a decent living, it isn't anything NEAR what the earning potential was in the 90s to early 2000s. He seemed to genuinely fear for the next group of riders in America.

Rossi, an alien in 2007? Definitely not. He was the first of them, but I have never seen, heard or listened to him being called an alien alone.A quick google search showed it was De Puniet who came up with it... in July 2009.

There is no telling what exactly Marquez will be up to. You just can't expect someone of his talent/results to fiddle around for 5th and lucky podiums his entire career.

alien is a term that's been used a lot before 2009. A lot of computer gamers use the term for mental good online players.

Yeah apparently Rossi wasn't any good until de Puniet came up with a term people can't stop overusing.

He was the GOAT, remember? That's a term you don't hear much these days. It's less "Champion vs. Challenger" and more first among equals now. I don't reckon anyone seriously thinks they'll be able to resolve for all time who's a better rider out of Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Rossi and Stoner, but it's very easy to tell that they're better than every other road racer. Back before 2008 or so there were a few more ways you could make your claim for racing immortality.

i'd would extremely surprised if marquez were even close to pedrosa's pace next year, simply because since german gp, pedrosa's is not considered as a human

I'm not sold on Pedrosa. Phillip Island showed that Dani isn't good under pressure and is human.As far as Marquez in GP is concerned, he's a rookie, and will have time to develop.Next year will be a repeat of 2010 with Team Yamaha dominating most races.

I'm not sold on Pedrosa. Phillip Island showed that Dani isn't good under pressure and is human.As far as Marquez in GP is concerned, he's a rookie, and will have time to develop.Next year will be a repeat of 2010 with Team Yamaha dominating most races.

Based on what exactly? Certainly not Honda's better development than Yamaha this year.

Pedrosa has been one (big) step ahead of the rest for the second half of the season and he would have been a very worthy champion this year. His races in Sepang or in Valencia were something new coming from him. I think he deserves a title in MotoGP after quite a great career in MotoGP (22 wins, 71 podiums, 24 poles).

Lorenzo has maximized the fact that Stoner was out for quite a while and no more rivals were around.

As I understand the sponsorships are only for racing season so the teams run unbranded in tests

That is a really really strange way to do it, because you do PR for the sponsor on a 12 month cycle. The more likely explanation is when you switch riders they run unbranded because they have contracts until the end of the year. So Rossi in his completely un-logo'd Yamaha. But Marquez has moved from a Repsol Honda to a Repsol Honda so wtf.

Gotta love it, the guy made the same number of mistakes as the guy that won the title and suddenly he's a choker.

Pedrosa rode well at times but, didn't have what it took to push Lorenzo till the end. With his experience he should have been able to do more imo.Call it what you want. I think Jorge is atleast 1 step above Dani. Who knows maybe this season will help Dani in the future on how to finish strong.Personaly I hope Marc pushes him next year.

Pedrosa rode well at times but, didn't have what it took to push Lorenzo till the end. With his experience he should have been able to do more imo.Call it what you want. I think Jorge is atleast 1 step above Dani. Who knows maybe this season will help Dani in the future on how to finish strong.Personaly I hope Marc pushes him next year.

Pedrosa finished a mere 18 points behind Lorenzo, the latter being on the most consistent machine by far.

I don't see how people can rate Lorenzo higher than Pedrosa when you factor in bike differences.